During the presentation it was evident from the reactions of those who attended that there is a lot happening in the cyber world involving children that we are unaware of and as teachers, and parents, we need to be vigilant and try to keep up with the possible dangers children are innocently exposed to online.

I was quite surprised and horrified how as a teacher I could be implicated as a sexual abuser of children if I did not follow procedure and protocol to protect myself, even though innocent of any wrongdoing.

It just shows what a sad world the online predators have made it for the innocent people in the real world.

I was also gob smacked at how online safety evolves rapidly. I say this as I attended a lecture by ACMA while on practicum last year , June 2010, on the exact same topic however there has been a considerable amount of extra information included that was not available in my last viewing, highlighting again the need for teachers to remain on top of this disturbing problem.

One area the presenter did not mention was how a child can be located through photos taken innocently by their parents or teachers and uploaded to a website. Not everyone is aware that some phone cameras and digital cameras have a feature that identifies the exact location the photo was taken. This feature can be disabled before uploading photos, however the user needs to be aware of this before it can be done.

I have included a video that shows how this feature can be used to a predators advantage. Please pass it on to anyone you know who has children.